We're traveling west through Texas, near Lubbock, in the semi-arid South Plain section of the Llano Estacado, commonly known as the Stacked Plains, a series of geographical subdivisions with distinct physiographic features.

• Increase the supply of alternative cooking fuel available: even with reduced consumption, firewood is not a sustainable fuel option for the people living in and around Dadaab and other semi-arid areas in east Africa.

Although most of the area currently affected by the drought and famine has not been wooded for a long time, this semi-arid land was once able to support the food and cooking fuel needs of the population, because the population was spread out -- a small number of largely nomadic people living across wide swathes of territory.

In experiments in a semi-arid region of Mali, in West Africa, the bait - in this case a blend of boric acid with guava and honey-melon fragrances - was applied using a hand sprayer on the vegetation near a cluster of man-made ponds.

In this semi-arid region of the country that represents the largest contiguous land mass dedicated for production agriculture, the total annual rainfall may be 18 inches, or in some years, substantially less.